Premier League: Burnley boss Sean Dyche says pressure is on Sunderland

Burnley manager Sean Dyche believes the pressure will be on Sunderland when they face each other in the Premier League on Saturday.

The two sides sit just above the relegation zone, with Sunderland marginally ahead on goal difference.

Burnley return to action after a two-week break at the Stadium of Light and will look to improve on their last two results, which saw them throw away two-goal leads against Tottenham and Crystal Palace.

Dyche is happy with how his side’s season is progressing though and believes the focus will be on how Gus Poyet’s Sunderland side perform in the crucial clash on Wearside.

After 10 games everyone said no chance and here we are sitting there in reasonable shape and making a good fist of it.

"I notice Gus is putting a lot of expectation on his players for this game and I think the fans do, there's a really big expectation,” said Dyche.

“It's a big club, a massive club at times, so you do understand that expectation. They've got to try to live up to that and we've got to really just continue to focus on what we're doing

"After 10 games everyone said no chance and here we are sitting there in reasonable shape and making a good fist of it as a minimum. Some of our performances have been very good."

Sunderland's only victory in their last 12 league matches came in the 1-0 derby win at Newcastle on December 21 but Dyche is not reading anything into their form.

"It doesn't work like that in football," he added. "We were a different category last season. We were at the top of the league looking at other teams who were maybe having a tough time.

"But when you're a team like ourselves, we can't take anything for granted in this division, we can't just go on the fact someone's having a bad run to expect to win.

"We have to make sure we're right in every minute of every game. That was proved against Palace. Two mistakes cost us the game."